Labour leader Keir Starmer has set out a series of demands to tackle the removal of unsafe cladding, as new figures suggest up to 11 million people are at risk from life changing cladding costs and unsellable properties.
Ahead of a vote in Parliament, the Labour leader has called for a new National Cladding Taskforce, modelled on the successful approach taken in Australia, to get a grip on the deepening cladding crisis and protect leaseholders from bearing the cost.
As analysis shows one in six UK homes are now at risk from the cladding scandal, Starmer also set out a comprehensive set of policy demands to kickstart action from Government. He argued that today must be a “turning point” for the crisis.
The intervention comes ahead of a visit by the Labour leader in South East London today, where he will meet with leaseholders living in blocks with dangerous cladding. After Ministers promised 15 times to protect leaseholders, Labour is urging Conservative MPs to support its motion to ensure costs are not passed on to residents and those responsible for the cladding scandal are pursued.
The National Cladding Taskforce would drive forward Labour’s six demands for safer homes, which include:
- Immediate up-front funding for removing deadly cladding and other urgent fire safety work
- Protecting leaseholders and taxpayers by pursuing those responsible for the cladding scandal for costs
- A new, legally enforceable 2022 deadline to make homes safe
- Legislation to protect residents from costs
- Getting the market moving by ensuring affected residents can sell and re-mortgage
- Stamping out rogue builders by reforming the sector
Labour is calling for a National Cladding Taskforce to drive this work after years of delays and ineffective measures from the Government. The taskforce would be given strong powers to establish the full extent of dangerous materials on buildings, prioritise them according to risk and ensure there is enforcement against those who refuse to undertake works.
Labour’s analysis of figures from the New Build Database and the ONS suggests the cladding scandal could be even larger than previously thought, affecting as many as 11 million people. The New Build Database estimates the scandal may affect up to 4.6 million properties, with an average of 2.4 residents per property. Data also shows the scandal risks freezing the entire market for flats, after sales halved compared to last year.
Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour Party, said there needs to be a turning point for those affected by the cladding scandal. “Millions of people have been sucked into this crisis due to years of dither, delay and half-baked solutions from the Government,” he continued.
“For many leaseholders, the dream of home ownership has become a nightmare. They feel abandoned, locked down in flammable homes and facing ruinous costs for repair work and interim safety measures… I urge the Government to get a grip of this crisis through a national taskforce and by implementing Labour’s six demands.”
Last month, the Government claimed that all high-rise buildings in the social sector and student buildings are now fully remediated or have work underway to remove unsafe ACM cladding.
It said around 95% of the highest risk buildings with unsafe cladding similar to that found on Grenfell Tower have been made safe or have work underway compared to a year ago; with 159 buildings starting work last year compared to 90 in 2019 - representing more buildings on site with remediation work in 2020 than at any point previously.
However, ministers acknowledged that the Government needed to continue to press building owners to take urgent action to make homes safer.
Building Safety Minister Lord Greenhalgh said: “Building owners are responsible for making sure that their buildings, and the people who live in them, are safe. However, some need to do more and it’s unacceptable a minority are yet to start work.
“We are in contact with the remaining buildings where remediation has not started and we are clear if work does not take place urgently we will take further enforcement action.”
Following the Grenfell Tower fire, the government launched a large-scale programme to identify all high-rise buildings in England with unsafe cladding similar to that found on Grenfell to ensure those homes were prioritised for remediation work to make them safe.
Separately, the government’s £1 billion Building Safety Fund is enabling faster remediation of high-rise buildings with other unsafe cladding and as at 15 January had allocated just under £100 million to projects (£95.9 million).
